The Left’s Crusade to Criminalize Self-Defense

AMAC Exclusive – By B.C. Brutus

The shocking murder conviction of Army Sgt. Daniel Perry earlier this month in the 2020 death of a protestor who allegedly aggressively approached Perry with an AK-47 and pointed it at him has once again highlighted the grotesque perversion of the law advanced by Democrat officials and liberal activists. Under the left’s vision of so-called “criminal justice reform,” not only do violent criminals walk free, law-abiding citizens face prosecution and imprisonment for engaging in legitimate self-defense.

As video of the deadly encounter shows, on the night of July 25, 2020, Perry was working as a ride-share driver in Austin, Texas, when his car was mobbed and surrounded by protestors. One of them, a man named Garret Foster, was carrying an AK-47 and approached Perry’s vehicle.

According to Perry, Foster pointed the weapon at him inside his car. Perry responded by pulling his handgun and shooting Foster, killing him.

However, instead of treating the case as a clear-cut instance of self-defense, Jose Garza, Travis County’s far-left prosecutor who received $650,000 from liberal billionaire George Soros during his most recent re-election bid, charged Perry with murder.

A jury selected from heavily liberal Austin found Perry guilty of that charge after a controversial trial which saw prosecutors use statements Perry made on social media that were critical of the Black Lives Matter organization as evidence against him. Defense lawyers for Perry also said they were denied permission to include evidence showing Foster instigating several other similar confrontations with drivers, and have filed a motion for a new trial.

If the conviction holds, Perry faces life in prison. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has said that he plans to pardon Perry, but he will first have to wait for a recommendation from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles – something which the governor has requested the board immediately expedite.

In other states without Republican governors, however, victims who exercise their right to self-defense often have little recourse.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who has become a national figure following his transparently partisan indictment of former President Donald Trump, has been particularly hostile toward New Yorkers who defend themselves against brazen acts of violence.

Just days after the Trump indictment, Bragg’s office advised police to charge parking garage attendant Moussa Diarra with attempted murder after Diarra wrestled a gun away from an assailant and shot him in the chest. According to reports of the altercation, the assailant, 59-year-old Charles Rhodie, who has at least 20 prior arrests, shot Diarra twice before Diarria turned Rhodie’s gun on him.

Last July, Bragg also charged bodega worker Jose Alba with murder after Alba used a knife to fend off Austin Simon, a violent felon who attacked him in his store. Video shows Simon storming behind the counter and shoving Alba into shelves before Alba grabs a box-cutting knife, fatally stabbing Simon.

Instead of recognizing Alba as a victim, Bragg’s office charged him with second-degree murder and requested a $250,000 bond which Alba was unable to pay, leaving him stuck behind bars. Outraged New Yorkers were quick to point out that Bragg’s office is notorious for freeing actual violent criminals on no bail, yet was now holding a man at Rikers Island for defending himself against an obvious life-threatening attack.

Amid mounting public pressure, Bragg ultimately dropped charges against both men.

In other cases, however, Americans have been forced to endure lengthy and costly court trials for defending themselves and their property.

One of the most high-profile incidents in recent years involved Mark and Patricia McCloskey, a St. Louis couple who stood on their porch with firearms in June of 2020 as angry mobs of protestors marched through their neighborhood. As the mob began shouting threats at the McCloskey’s and encroaching on their property, the couple feared for their lives and trained their guns on the crowd.

Although neither fired a single shot, St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner – another Soros-backed DA – filed charges against the couple, resulting in them pleading guilty to misdemeanor offenses. Missouri Governor Mike Parson pardoned the couple, but the state supreme court suspended their law licenses indefinitely and placed them on probation.

A few months after the McCloskey incident, 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse shot three men in Kenosha, Wisconsin, amid rioting that destroyed dozens of businesses and buildings. As court documents show, one of the men chased Rittenhouse through a parking lot and grabbed the barrel of Rittenhouse’s rifle before Rittenhouse fired, fatally wounding him. Rittenhouse then fatally shot a second man who struck him with a skateboard and injured a third who pointed a handgun at him.

Kenosha DA Michael Graveley, who reportedly has close ties to BLM activists, brought 18 charges, including homicide, against Rittenhouse in a trial that captivated the country for more than three weeks. Ultimately, a jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts.

The reaction to Rittenhouse’s acquittal demonstrated better than perhaps any other case in recent years just how hostile the entire liberal establishment – not just left-wing prosecutors – has become to the basic right to self-defense. President Joe Biden baselessly smeared Rittenhouse as a “white supremacist,” while the then-New York Mayor Bill de Blasio fumed that the case was a “miscarriage of justice.” Other elected Democrats called Rittenhouse a “murderer.”

In the left’s “reimagining” of the justice system, it seems, self-defense has become a high crime, while many actual crimes go unpunished. In this upside-down world, victims become criminals and criminals become victims – and the whole country suffers as a result.

B.C. Brutus is the pen name of a writer with previous experience in the legislative and executive branches.